Cupid Uses Bullets
by staggarnet
Summary: It starts with a bang. Seto Kaiba is shot by a sniper and within 24 hours he finds himself in closet with a hot blond, in a secret lab where a little girl has contracted a supervirus, and in a crossfire as Tea collapses in his arms. r and r please!
1. Chapter 1: The Sniper

**_The Sniper_**

Mika's hands shook as she aimed for his head.

The grail under her knees overlooked the grand atrium of Kaiba Corp's main building, where a meeting was taking place. Businessmen circled the podium where Seto Kaiba spoke coolly, slowly, with an arrogant drawl. He wore a look that said, "No one can touch me" and he thought it was true.

"The DuelNano will create a new generation of humans," he said. Her heart thudded. "A generation that won't have duel stadiums, holograms, or card slots." No one dared to breathe. "They won't have televisions, cell phones or computers. They won't have the internet." A bodyguard carrying a black box mounted the steps to the podium. "Mr. Kaiba," he murmured, and bowed stiffly. Scanners beeped, locks snapped, eyes riveted to the tiny drop of quicksilver that appeared between the young executive's finger and thumb.

It was the size of an apple seed and when he crushed his fingertips together, it gave way, like a balloon, only to pop back up again. Murmurs of puzzlement went around the crowd as they wondered whether it would grow larger or produce wires or lenses like they were used to. "Doesn't look like much to me," called a blonde woman in the back. "I know I'd probably lose that wee bit of plastic. And not regret it." She laughed like the sound of glass falling.

"Would you volunteer to test it, then, Ms. Waltz?"

"Gladly." Her green eyes met his blue ones with a smile. Her heels clicked through the parting crowd.

Mika squeezed the trigger and fell back with a bang.


	2. Chapter 2: Bleeding, He Thinks of Her

**The Secret**

The rattle of wheels. They were running across the bumpy concrete to the waiting helicopter and all he could think was that he should call and tell her he would not be meeting her after all in the back garden all strewn with wildflowers and climbing roses. He wanted to tell Roland to get him his cell or at least give him the DuelNano, but the man was behind the sliding doors, he was the source of the shouting and the slamming. God. He couldn't believe it. There was a hole in his shoulder where the blood was welling up. And Tea thought he would be coming for her this evening.

No one would believe it so he never bothered to explain. When he first saw her, he labeled her as stupid and sentimental, but he never could understand why the things she said stung him. He remembered that duel that brought Yugi to tears, on the rooftop of Pegasus's castle. She stopped Yugi from killing him; she won the game for him—she plagued him with guilt. When she had raged at him, he pretended he didn't care, but he did. It always stuck with him.

Which was why when they ran into each other at the doorstep of Grandpa Mouto's duel shop, he grabbed her arm. "Tea…" he began. He waited for her to pull away, to stop him.

Instead she looked up curiously, almost fearfully. "Yes?"

"Look I…I'm sorry." The words stopped. They tasted strange in his mouth. He waited for her to walk away, to laugh, to not understand.

Instead she smiled. "It's okay," she said. The city sounds all died away; the cars rushing by, the people swishing around them, the pigeons fluttering and pecking and vying—they all vanished. He asked her to meet him again, she said she would, and she reached out to touch his hand. Her fingers sent a jolt through him.

They had been dating for six months. They sat next to each other by the koi pond and fed the fish breadcrumbs. They held hands and murmured to each other about what they would do if they could and what they would change if they only knew how. They had never kissed, though he wanted to.

And now he was dying.


	3. Chapter 3: Sucker Punch

**A Different Kind of Sucker Punch**

"There! There!" They ran down the halls and it was just like in her nightmares except the monsters were real men holding real weapons and she could not will herself to wake up. They were coming, banging their batons against every vent grail and shining their stabbing flashlights all around her, hoping to catch the flash of human skin. She grit her teeth and clambered towards the silence. "I hear him!" came the voice. "This way."

She resolutely spun around, only to collapse flat on her stomach. She had done it. Why not just die in this makeshift coffin? Did she really need Michal's thanks or his shiny medal? It was done.

A laser blade sliced through the ceiling and swished towards her, it would have gutted her if she hadn't rolled. She threw her gun with a clatter but the laser continued to edge towards her elbow. Her breath caught. "I hear him! We've almost got him!" She scrambled as far as she could until she hit a bundle of electric cables. They would never sever these, she thought grimly, and draped them over her stomach like a shield.

She thought she was dreaming when the sharp light danced over her black shirt and the stink of smoke filled her nostrils. Sparks ate at the cotton fabric, she knew she would die screaming and they would pull out her blackened corpse and stuff it in some back alley and her mother would cry and Michal would pick at his wrists and then they would move on and forget her as she rotted. "Seto Kaiba!" she cried. "I wish you dead the instant your goons kill me! I wish you torment and pain and misery!"

She did not expect the square of light to fall upon her. She did not expect the strong arms yanking her out by her armpits.

"A girl!" roared a man. His sunglasses were slipping off his face; his suit bore damp splashes across his chest where Kaiba had fallen against him. She could feel the heat of his breath. She smelled rage seething from him as he grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Tell me why—why did you have to—" He took in her porcelain face, her defiant expression. "Just—get her out of my sight." The man walked to a window and looked down. His shoulders were shaking like a snapped violin string.

A gun was jabbed against her head. Her legs wouldn't work so they kicked her along the hall, but she hardly felt it. The man's quiet disgust, the blood clinging to his tie, the incomprehension; it all irked her. "I'm not trying to hurt you," she said. "This was for you—"

"Move it you—"

She thrashed against the guards' hands. "Mister!" she called to him. "I'm sorry but I have to save the world!" Another blow fell against her knee. She crumpled.

He didn't understand.


	4. Chapter 4: The Beautiful Thief

**The Beautiful Thief**

Hear the beep and the mechanical voice intoning, "All message, play back." In the dark, you cannot see her face, but she is smiling as she brings the phone to her ear. Hear the voices as she hears them.

_"Seto, Seto, please pick up Seto…I can't find anyone, they won't tell me where they took you, big brother, pick up, please, please, please. They're saying—please be okay. SETO, WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING? SETO I'M GONNA…" _Beep. _"_Skip."

_"Kaiba, you haven't forgotten me already, right? _(Laughs)_ Just know, I'm waiting for you …right under the roses…and there's no one here. Even the old man with the monkey, even the artist who painted our portraits, they're all gone and the stars are coming out and it's kind of…cold. I feel really silly, so come over and rescue me! You still…love me right?" _Beep. "Skip."

_"Mr. Kaiba, I've been hearing these rumors that you've been shot. Please call back, I want to know if our meeting is still on tomorrow. Yatisimo is a busy man and billions of dollars are on stake. I want to see if your little virus really can…"_ Beep. "Skip."

_"SETO!? SETO!? SETO!? SETO!? SE"_ Beep. "Skip."

_"Seto…sweetheart…are you okay? I've never" _Beep. _"Mr. Kaiba."_ Beep. _"Where are you…please…" _Beep. _"I'm coming! Hold on—" _Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

This voice is new; it is cold, slow, and arrogant but blurred by static. _"Jaime. Carl. Ella. Best poison. Black wave. Swallow. Heart. Simple. And all your fault. God you think. You never knew. So thankyouthank you Mr. Kaiba. For tonight. Regards!"_

"End of final message. Press four for all message play back. Press five—"

When she gets home, she will dial his number and leave a message of her own. It will send him over to her place faster than he can run, faster than he can fly. If he survives to hear it.


	5. Chapter 5: The First Night

**The first night...**

She wakes up from a bad dream and can't sleep again. She nips open the tip of her finger and writes her name in a thin stream of blood on the metal walls. She watches the letters slide down: M-I-K-A. Maybe they will think she's crazy. Maybe they will pity her. Maybe some buff, blood-intolerant man will faint on top of the controls and press the "DOOR OPEN" button with his forehead.

Actually, no one is watching her. Seto Kaiba is having a bad night, and next to that, the assassin is nothing.

The man under the streetlights stamps out a cigarette before he picks the little girl up. She is as light as a bird, as light as the clouds on the shoulders of the sky. As long as she holds onto him, no one will hurt her, even when they step into the brick-walled shadows.

He thinks.

* * *

Tea slips into the darkened room. Machines are beeping in time with his heart and his face is turned away from her. She touches his cheek, traces his lips, whispers his name. Someone is coming down the hall but she is preoccupied with thoughts of sparrows in the bushes and just yesterday at twilight when he said, "This is the hardest thing I've ever done…"

Her fingers tremble on the sheets. She leans over him so their eyelashes brush and she can feel the reassuring heat of his breath.

"What do you think you're doing?" The nurse seizes her shoulders and yanks her back. "The bullet punctured a lung and now you're going to infect him with your germs? Are you in line with the assassin? GET OUT!" Tea stumbles, almost falls. She sobs because he can't hear this; he can't hear the sound of her loving him.

* * *

Sometime around three A.M. the hot sweat of her palm dissolves the silver bead. She trembles. Behind a computer screen, a red light comes on and the man can finally close his eyes. The end has begun.


	6. Chapter 6: Something Wicked

**The Remarkable Child, While Kaiba is Trapped in A Closet with a Woman (Who is _Not_ His Girlfriend)**

That is to say, my sweet Soraya woke up kind of funny. I had my hand on her forehead all through breakfast; checking to see if it was a fever, and that's a difficult accomplishment, let me tell you. Have you ever tried to fry eggs with one hand glued to your girl?

And she _is_ my girl. I left her momma in Chain's Station three weeks ago, left all Lily's stuff in a suitcase by her feet and kissed her on the cheek, even if I couldn't stand the beer stink coming out of her mouth. Soraya said she wouldn't ever talk to me again that day, but she got over it faster than I did. Soraya can't shut her mouth. And here she is sitting against a tree, staring silently off into space.

I'm pinning her dresses up on the clothesline and singing "Robin in the Rain." "Baby," I say. "When's a raven like a writing desk? Have you heard?" She doesn't even blink, just digs her fingers into the grass. "Honey, go check if I left the stove on?" It's like I didn't say a word. Maybe she's playing but I don't like the game.

I squat down to her level. "Soraya Sloan," I say. "Don't mess with me. Is something wrong?"

"Hush Daddy," she says. "Amazing Jake is fighting the Steel Queen, I wanna hear." Her eyes glass over again.

Amazing who? Amazing where? I think. There are only birds, and trees, and the cars passing on the highway. But she is seeing something. It is like she's sunk into her own head. Schizophrenia? Hallucinations? Brain cancer? I shiver and scoop her up. The gate bangs shut behind me. I almost make it to the sidewalk too.

* * *

Even though she said she wouldn't look, she's giggling and he finds it incredibly awkward. "Can't you stand outside and keep watch?"

"No," she says (as expected). "They're looking for me. If they see me, out I go! Without you." The silence is punctuated by the buzz of zipper. "Have I ever told you I hooked up with my second boyfriend in a school supply closet?" With a grimace he throws off his hospital gown and buttons up a white coat. "Alright," he says. She puts her eye to the doorhinge, he's holding his breath, her fingers snake around his and she's dragging him out.

They stride through the glass doors and slip into a black car.

Just.

Like.

That.

"Update me on the situation," he says, steepling his fingers. She tips back a glass of strawberry juice and offers him the bottle. He just stares and lets their eyes clash again. Blue to green.

"You're a meanie, you know that?" She drops the glass into the cooler and slams down the lid. "Well. The police rushed us out, _we thought_, and your man Roland announced that he had caught the suspect, so I didn't think anything of it. Was gonna send you a teddy bear and a get well card and _get that contract signed_. You can sign with your left hand, right?"

Kaiba snorts. Her hands fly animatedly about as she talks; it irks him, makes him twitch.

"Then the alarm goes off in the middle of the night and Roland's voice is rasping in my ear. Something about a trash can off the corner of Providential Avenue and Brookhauser, so I, being not only beautiful but charitable, rush off in my stilettos in the middle of the night to fish…get this…your phone out of an _almost_ empty takeout box. I think these messages will…ah…interest you."

His face become stony as the records play. He frowns at the second-to-last message and looks to her for advice.

"They've taken it, Kaiba. Once a Prince, now a Pauper."

"It-It's happened before."

"I don't think you comprehend."

"I know _full well_ what has happened, Ms. Waltz," he snaps. "Every Big Man there is has tried to take my company. Tried and failed. I'm almost _bored _by their idiotic antics."

She puts her hand over his hand and shakes her head so slowly that he can catch every glint of light off her eyes. "Kaiba," she says. "Seto." And then the car stops.

"Miss, we're here, right."

"Let me show you something."

The house is a semi-detached affair with peeling shutters and ragged wildflowers sprawling onto the sidewalk. A cat greets them at the hall and vanishes behind an umbrella stand. Shoes, bills, magazines, costume jewelry—all lie scattered about on the carpet and up the stairs, like a trail of breadcrumbs. In the basement, three state-of-the-art LCD screens hang on the walls, looking sleek and out of place. Green dots flash on a pixellated map. They flash and multiply.

"See this? I've hacked into Kaiba Corp."

He's impressed. "Since when?"

She shrugs. "Oh, maybe a week ago. It took me three years though…but that's beside the point. Go on."

"Go on what?"

"Ask."

He blinks. "Okay. So what the hell are those?"

"Well…they _used_ to be people…" she begins. Her animated hands fall at last to her sides. "But now they're...not."


	7. Chapter 7: Cold Sweat

**Cold Sweat**

"Before Kaiba Corp was a leisure and gaming company, it manufactured weaponry. You wanted to change that, Kaiba; you wanted to erase Gozaburo's legacy but…"

A squeak came from the next room. "Rats?" he remarked, raising his eyebrows.

"I'll explain." Ms. Waltz leaned into a computer screen. The pixels blurred like water; then she vanished through. Kaiba followed confidently.

They were in a little room full of complicated equipment that beeped, chirped, and whirred. Spotlights, scanners, wire sensors, and googly lenses all peered at a subject strapped to the operating table in the center. A man crouched beside the table. He was crying into his hands.

"Mr. Sloan," said Ms. Waltz, more for Kaiba's benefit than anyone else's. The patient was a little girl who thrashed and snarled like a wild thing, while staring with the glazed eyes of a rabid dog. "And this _was_ his daughter, Soraya."

Kaiba knew Ms. Lucia Waltz well; Kenji Yatisimo owned YTech Inc., the third largest technology supplier in the world, and she was his right hand man, figuratively speaking. Five years his senior, and all the wiser for it, he knew to watch her carefully, like a mouse should watch a snake. He noticed the tricky curl to her lips and interrupted smoothly: "So you're kidnapping children these days?"

"Only for you, Kaiba," she replied sweetly. "This girl, what do you think is wrong with her?"

"Neurotoxin. Possibly strychnine."

Ms. Waltz laughed. The tinkling sound clashed discordantly with the man's crying. "You're so silly, it's cute," she said. "This girl has been _infected_ with an _electronic supervirus_. Her sensory nerves especially are _covered_ with them. I have reason to believe that she no longer sees, feels, nor hears what we see, hear, or feel. She is no longer _human_. Judging from a…nasty incident getting her in here, I can also tell you that she is _ten times_ as strong as you are, and three times as _fast_—with all due respect, of course, Seto."

"With all due respect, of course, Lucia, that's _absurd_."

She steepled her fingers and nodded politely.

"An 'electronic supervirus' is too advanced to exist. The only company that's anywhere developed enough to produce this is…"

"Yours, Mr. Kaiba." The heart rate monitor beeped into the sudden silence. "Now, whatever happened to the Duel Nano?"

"It wasn't meant to work this way."

"But someone saw that it had the potential. You should have seen that it had the—"

She had that look in her eye now; the "Take Him Down" look. Mr. Sloan wiped away his tears and began to frown and clench his fists.

"This is _not_ my fault," said Kaiba. "There's _no_ reason why I should care about this. I'm going back to my company." He expected her to say, "Your company is doing this." He waited for her to say, "You're too clever to not have known the risks." "Profit, profit, that's all you care about," she would cry, and then Mr. Sloan would rise up like a Frankenstein monster and try to bash him over the head with an X-Ray machine.

Well, he wasn't going to let that happen. He wanted to go home. His ribs ached and he couldn't breathe and he wanted to fly to his private doctor in Milan; he wanted to get his hands on a computer and freeze the thugs who had the audacity to take his life, his love.

He did not expect her to say, "I've been tracking the hijackers who have taken your company. The leader is a man named Jaime. He's been monitoring all the people infected, like that girl over there. Remember the dots, Mr. Kaiba? Soraya is a dot. Maybe your neighbor is a dot. Maybe Mokuba is a dot… Maybe _Tea_ is a dot."

His heart stopped. Mr. Sloan reached out to turn on a TV.

* * *

_Author's Note:_

_wow! i almost never get to write these things! :D just wanted to say: please review! i wish i could add more fluff. i will stuff fluff in somewhere. hm...  
_


	8. Chapter 8: Cornered

_**Like a cornered dog**_

Dearest Seto,

I'm standing at the very edge of the road. Cars are speeding behind me so quickly, I can feel the ground shake under my feet.

Or maybe it's _me _shaking. They have these eyes.

These eyes that look without looking and their nails are all ragged and bleeding like they've stuffed their hands in their mouths and just chewed like starving things. But I know that's not true. They've been clawing…fighting…subduing people like me—some of them have anyway. Some of the small ones who look beat up or hacked at with sledgehammers. The healthy ones with clothing intact carry guns. _Those_ don't have to come close at all.

Stay away from the windows. When they shoot you, you don't die.

And five. There are five. Two tramped out from the alley between the grocer's and the Laundromat and

one second they're there and the next they're lined up, forcing me onto the road, pointing their rifles—Mr. Benson! Oh it's Mr. Benson pulling up behind me. He's wily, he's heartless, he's driven straight through them and they're shooting! I've never jumped so far in my life, thank god for seatbelts. For bread trucks built like tanks. Ohmygod, _right through the glass_! They got him! He's—He's gone! I'm sorry Mr. Benson…!

I pushed him toward the sidewalk. Hopefully nothing will…hit him. Maybe we can undo this. You can undo this, you're so clever, Seto, if I could just find you...

Seto I'm coming to see you, I need to find you, we have to leave this place, there has to be somewhere safe. Oh I hope Yugi and Joey and Tristan and Serenity and everyone and everyone…I'll find you first. You'll know what to do. You always know. But this thing's running low on gas and I'm lost, I…

Where are you? Seto, where are you?

* * *

Later, police confirmed that a witness, who wishes to remain anonymous, saw the car swerving erratically toward Kaiba Corp. Headquarters.

At the same time Seto Kaiba, on a white motorcycle, headed in the same direction. He carried no weapons and wore no armor, aside from a numbness around his heart.


End file.
